Portland observer., January 08, 2020, Image 1

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Volume XLVIV • Number 2
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • January 8, 2020
Committed to Cultural Diversity
photo by b everly C orbell /t he p ortland o bserver
Kymberly Horner, the new executive director of Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, picks up the mantle to a mission to see 1,000 new living units built in the
next 10 years to help alleviate the housing crisis. PCRI is a housing nonprofit rooted in Portland’s African American community.
Housing and a Backup Plan
New housing
director advances
PCRI mission
b everly C orbell
t he p ortland o bserver
When Kymberly Horner took over as
executive director of Portland Communi-
ty Reinvestment Initiatives this past fall,
by
she vowed to have an impact on Portland’s
housing crisis and now she is moving for-
ward on the nonprofit’s goal to build 1,000
new housing units in the next 10 years.
Called Pathway 1000, the plan was de-
veloped by Maxine Fitzpatrick, Horner’s
predecessor who founded PCRI in 1994.
The organization, rooted in Portland’s Af-
rican American community, was formed
in direct response to fraudulent real estate
contracts that caused many people of color
in north and northeast Portland to lose their
homes. Thanks to the work of PCRI, many
of those homeowners back then had their
mortgages rewritten and their homes were
saved.
Getting people into their own homes to-
day – whether renting or buying – is the
main goal of PCRI. But Horner wants to
take it a step farther and make sure peo-
ple can manage the financials to keep their
homes once they acquire them. To that
end, she’s been working with Dr. Karin
Edwards, president of Portland Communi-
ty College’s Cascade campus to come up
with a plan for further education.
“One of the things I would like to be
doing for residents and new homeowners
is making sure they’ve got economic sta-
bility behind them,” Horner said. “The
minute there’s an uptick in downsizing or a
recession occurs…there are certain groups
of people who are historically displaced.”
That includes people of color, women and
C ontinued on p age 5